Memory Prime (a location that houses several computer research libraries) is hosting the 23rd century's Nobel Prize award in science and the Enterprise has been chosen to take the scientists to the location. An assassin has made his way aboard the ship with the intent of destroying the entire Federation. Spock is wrongfully implicated in the assassin's plot and forced to prove his innocence while also finding the true perpetrator. The novel also features the return of Mira Romaine, a character first seen in the television episode "The Lights of Zetar."